Update packs and a new update manager were made available for Linux Mint Debian Linux Mint signed a partnership with AYKsolutions Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC2 was released mintCast released 5 podcast episodes: #72, #73, #74, #75 and #76

Summary:

Linux Mint Gnome and Linux Mint Xfce (both based on Debian testing) are currently being tested. The Update Packs and the new Update Manager were a success and allowed us to warn the community about upstream breakages (Gnome 3 regressions, MESA incompatibilities..etc) and to adapt our technology before updates were made available to the public. The next step is already in progress and it consists in developing a network of mirrors for the new Debian repositories. A quick interview was given to “My Linux Rig“ The decision was taken to migrate our KDE and Fluxbox editions to LMDE. Going forward our project will support 2 desktops with a frozen Ubuntu base (Gnome and LXDE) and 4 desktops on top of a rolling Debian base (Gnome, KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox). Our daily income went down 9% in July due to a smaller number of donations and the average price paid per clicks/impressions in advertising. July and August are traditionally quiet so these results are not alarming. In fact the slight increases observed in the number of impressions and search queries are extremely positive for us, especially in the middle of the summer holidays.

Frozen as opposed to rolling... in Ubuntu, packages are frozen to a particular version. Once the release is out, you only get security updates, not new versions of software. What happens is that every 6 months you see a new frozen snapshot which doesn't change over time.